Pequots Sweeten Offer For Bridgeport Casino

September 21, 1995|By MATTHEW DALY; Courant Staff Writer

BRIDGEPORT — Upping the ante in its bid to open a Bridgeport casino, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe Wednesday offered to give the state 20 percent of the new casino's annual gaming revenues in return for a 20-year guarantee that no other casino would open in the city.

G. Michael Brown, president and chief executive officer of the tribe's Foxwoods Resort Casino near Ledyard, said that if the state guarantees exclusivity for only 10 years -- as currently planned -- the tribe would seek to lower its annual gaming tax to 16 percent.

Speaking at a press conference marking the opening of the tribe's employment and community development office at a former bank branch downtown, Brown said a tribe-run casino in Bridgeport would ``beat the pants off'' casino competition in Atlantic City.

``Bridgeport is 40 minutes from New York City,'' he said. ``Atlantic City is two hours, 40 minutes'' from New York. With a quality casino, as much as 30 percent of the New York-area business now going to Atlantic City could be diverted to Connecticut, Brown said.

Brown made the comments to a packed audience of more than 100 media members and other observers as the tribe launched its second strike this week in a media blitz for a casino in downtown Bridgeport. The tribe had been mum about its plans until Monday.

Presenting sketches of the proposed casino complex, Brown said the tribe's bid was preferable to a competing offer by Las Vegas- based Mirage Resorts because it does more for the city in terms of jobs and economic development.

The room where he was standing was an example of the tribe's commitment to Bridgeport, Brown said. The formerly vacant bank branch at 333 State St. has been transformed into a thriving office that will be used to recruit and train workers, both for Foxwoods and the casino planned in Bridgeport.

The office is accepting applications for 319 current vacancies at Foxwoods and will provide transportation to Foxwoods for any worker from the Bridgeport area who needs it, Brown said.

The office also would serve as headquarters of the tribe's economic and community development fund, which would contribute 10 percent of the casino's profits for housing, small-business development and other economic needs, he said.

The tribe expects to contribute a total of $25 million to the fund in the next three years, and about $15 million to $20 million a year thereafter, Brown said. That latter estimate is significantly lower than the $60 million a year that Brown had cited to the Bridgeport Common Council at a meeting Monday night. A tribal spokesman later said Brown had misspoken on Monday.

While both proposals are first- rate, the difference between the tribe's and Mirage's is simple, Brown said: ``Ours involves development of a city along with a resort.''

Richard D. ``Skip'' Bronson, president of New City Development, Mirage's local subsidiary, scoffed at the notion that the tribe is friendlier to Bridgeport than Mirage.

``For three years, the Pequots' threat of stopping their [slot-machine] payments [to the state] has been the principal reason Bridgeport does not have a casino right now,'' Bronson said. ``I'm glad they now realize all the benefits the city can expect from a casino resort and would hope that even if they are not selected, they will support enabling legislation'' for a casino to be built outside an Indian reservation.

Bronson also disputed Brown's contention that the Pequots will create more local jobs than Mirage.

``Everything they've done [regarding job creation] has been a knee-jerk reaction to what we've done,'' Bronson said. ``They're now having a job fair [on Saturday]. We had job a fair 2 1/2 years ago.''

The Mirage bid actually creates more permanent jobs than the Pequot proposal, Bronson said -- 10,500, compared with about 9,000 for the Pequots. Both proposals also would create thousands of construction jobs and thousands of other jobs at temporary casinos to be opened before the permanent sites are completed, the developers said.

At a total cost of $900 million, with a projected 300,000-square- foot casino, the Mirage proposal is bigger and more expensive than the Pequot offer, Bronson said. The first phase of the Pequot proposal is expected to cost about $575 million and include 155,000 square feet of gaming space.

The one-upmanship between the two developers extended to a dispute over which offer was better for the state. Bronson questioned why the Pequots had not sent a letter of credit, as Gov. John G. Rowland had requested, while Brown said selection of the tribe as the developer would ensure an uninterrupted flow of payments to the state from the two Indian tribes with approved casinos.

When revenues from a temporary casino -- which could open as soon as April -- are combined with monthly payments from Foxwoods, the Pequots could end up paying the state as much as $649 million over the next three years, Brown said. That figure would soar to $815 million if the nearby Mohegan tribe succeeds in its plans to open a casino in Montville, Brown said.

Either figure is higher than the $610 million Rowland has sought as a guarantee to protect the state from the loss of the Indian money while the Bridgeport casino is under construction. The Pequots have threatened to stop payments if a non- Indian developer is approved.

Brown said a letter of credit from the tribe would be absurd.

``Our letter of credit is the payments we've made since February 1993,'' he said.